The Unshackled Organization: Facing the Challenge of Unpredictability Through Spontaneous Reorganization

Publisher's Message

In a time when managers are scrambling to find methods to maneuver through the madness of a completely unpredictable business environment, Jeffrey Goldstein's answers are surprising, challenging, and sometimes controversial. But when applied, they reveal the key to highly refined organization functioning.

In The Unshackled Organization, consultant and management professor Jeffrey Goldstein examines new territory with his exploration into how change happens within an organization. Utilizing leading-edge scientific and social theories about change, including non-linear, far-from-equilibrium, chaos theory, and system dynamics, Goldstein shows that only through "self-organization" can natural, lasting change occur.

The theory behind "self-organization" arises from the idea of allowing and even amplifying unpredictable fluctuation rather than abolishing or controlling it. In other words, don't fight it! Change imposed from above often is not accepted with open arms by employees. But out of the chaos of change that emerges from within the organization will come long-lasting, structural improvements instead of short-term, Band-Aid solutions.

This is a dramatic new way of looking at change, one that means rethinking how change happens within an organization and how you can encourage the process. This book is a pragmatic guide for managers, executives, consultants, and other change agents. More than an academic discourse on a new theory of change, it is filled with real-world examples about diverse types of change in a variety of business and service organizations. This is information you can start using today to support true change within your organization.

Contents

Publisher's Message
Preface
Chapter One: New Wine Skins
Chapter Two: Growth in Nonlinear Systems
Chapter Three: The Dynamics of Self-Organization
Chapter Four: From Resistance to Attraction
Chapter Five: The Equilibrium Effect of Self-Fulfilling Prophecies
Chater Six: Generating Far-From-Equilibrium Conditions
Chapter Seven: Working With Boundaries
Chapter Eight: Differences That Make A Difference
Chapter Nine: The Cauldron of Change
Chapter Ten: The Magic Theatre
Epilogue
Notes
About the Author
Index